Countries attending a U.N.-backed migratory species conference in Brazil have agreed to increased protections for the striped hyena, whose vast range includes parts of Central Asia, according to an international conservation group.
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan had submitted the proposal to upgrade protections for the species during a meeting of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals in Campo Grande this week.
“The Committee agreed by consensus to the proposal to include the striped hyena in Appendices I and II,” and the approval will become official at a plenary meeting on Sunday, said Susan Lieberman, vice president for international policy with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.
Appendix I is a designation that would require countries to restore habitats, bar killing or capture except in limited cases and take other robust steps to protect the striped hyena. Appendix II requires governments to coordinate their efforts across the species’ range, which also includes parts of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
“It’s great news for the species, and will hopefully stimulate action for its conservation and protection across its vast range—it will give this endangered, misunderstood species a chance,” Lieberman told TCA on Friday.
The striped hyena is listed as “near threatened” on the global IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, though conservationists warn that its population is steadily dropping. Habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and illegal hunting and trade are factors in its decline.
Delegates to a United Nations meeting on global wildlife trade in Uzbekistan in November rejected a move by Tajikistan to tighten trade restrictions for the striped hyena. The decision came in Samarkand at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES.
